I was lucky enough to be able to attend the wedding on Saturday 22nd September of our former Youth Exchange Student from 2001-02, Martina Heiniger, and her new husband, Olivier Djibeal. It was a wonderful multicultural and multilingual wedding held at Spitzkirche, Rheinau which is on the border of Germany and Switzerland on the Rhine River about an hour’s drive from Zurich. Guests came from all continents (except Antarctica 🙂) and the service was held in English, French and German with small sections in Swiss German and Mbaye.
Martina met Olivier in Chad 5 years ago when she was working for the UNHCR and their love has developed through many countries - Chad, Benin, France and Switzerland as they moved around for work.
The wedding commenced at 12.30pm with a 1 hour coach trip from Zurich to Rheinfall where we boarded a boat for a Rhine River cruise and to see the Rhine Falls, the largest waterfalls in Europe. A light lunch was consumed on the boat as we travelled to Spitzkirche on an island in the Rhine at Rheinau for the ceremony in a beautiful old chapel. Martina and Olivier had changed to more formal wedding clothes from the traditional black casual ones on the boat.
Their formal wedding outfits had material from Chad in the Chadian colours 🇹🇩 and we were each given a gift of a bangle, earrings, necklace, belt, suspenders, tie or pocket handkerchief in the same material. Their wedding rings were passed around the congregation on a continuous ribbon along all the pews in the chapel for each person to silently bless during the service - a lovely idea.
After the service we were treated to music from 4 alpenhorns
and then to dinner in a function room at the venue. A short fireworks display was enjoyed before heading to another hall at the venue for dessert and the party! The party was a joyous occasion with African drummers, dancing and other music. The coach then left just before 2am for the return trip to Zurich. A long but wonderful day.
Kind regards
Jenny